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PRELECTIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 



DEVELOPING THE STAPLE AND HIGHEST ATTRIBUTES 



ELOQUENCE, 



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ORATORY 



FOUNDED OX THE 



LAWS OF PHYSIOLOGY, 



WITH THE 



: SUSTEND ALTO, AND PURELY ORAL PRINCIPLE 



ORATORICAL DELIVERY, 



V 



PRELECTOR CRONIN, 



WHO HAS BEEN ENGAGED DURING THE LAST SEVEN AND THIRTY YEAR: 
IN MOULDING AND PREPARING PULPIT SPEAKERS, FORENSIC ADVO- 
CATES, LEGISLATORS, COLLEGIATE AND UNIVERSITY STU- 
DENTS IN LONDON, DUBLIN, AT OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE, 
AS WELL AS SENATORS AND STATESMEN AT WASH- 
INGTON, AND CLERGYMEN AND STUDENTS IN 
THE PRINCIPAL CITIES AND UNIVERSI- 
TIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



NEW HAVEN : 

'UTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR, PRINTERS 

1862. 



ORATORY. 



PRELECTIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 

DEVELOPING THE STAPLE AND HIGHEST ATTRIBUTES 

OF 

ELOQUENCE, 



FOUNDED ON THE 



LAWS OF PHYSIOLOGY, 



WITH THE 



SUSTEND ALTO, AND PURELY ORAL PRINCIPLE 



OF 



ORATORICAL DELIVERY. 




PRELECTOR, CRONIN, 

WHO HAS BEEN ENGAGED DURING THE LAST SEVEN AND THIRTY YEARS 
IN MOULDING AND PREPARING PULPIT SPEAKERS, FORENSIC ADVO- 
CATEST* LEGISLATORS*, COLLEGIATE AND UNIVERSITY STU- 
DENTS IN LONDON, DUBLIN, AT OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE, 
AS WELL AS SENATORS AND STATESMEN AT WASH- 
INGTON, AND CLERGYMEN AND STUDENTS IN 
THE PRINCIPAL CITIES AND UNIVERSI- 
TIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



NEW HAVEN : 

TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR, PRINTERS. 



1862. 






^ 



:,.t 



Entered, according to Aet ef Congress, in the year 1862, by 

PRJELECTOR THADETJS T. CRONIN 
In the Clerk's Offloe of the District Conrt of Connecticut 




t^f-a*. e*W ^^j 






i 



INTRODUCTION. 

^ ~ 

The subject treated in the following preelections, is one of 
vital and paramount importance, of obvious and universally- 
admitted utility, to all who are destined for, or already belong to 
the learned and speaking professions — professions in which a 
dignified, commanding, and effective eloquence becomes ancil- 
lary, at least, if not principally instrumental in securing to its t 
successful votaries fortune, fame,«^|4 social\olitical disti nc-^j yy^^r 
tion. 

To the minister of Keligion, who has the Divine command 
and commission to preach the Gospel of the living God to all I 

nations — to the forensic advocate, the legislator and statesman, 
an impressive, brilliant, and masterly eloquence, is of infinite, 
of invaluable and solid usefulness. 

In support of these views we are triumphantly sustained, 
not only by the opinions, the precepts, the practice, the educa- 
tional habits, the disciplinary training, and elaborate exercises, 
but, above all, by the unparalleled success, as well of those 
illustrious master spirits who, in modern times, both in Europe 
and America, have shed luster on the noble faculty of elo- 
quence, — as of the most renowned orators of antiquity. 

Tracing minutely the lives of orators, their opinions, the 
habits, the practice by which, not alone the great Lord Chat- 
ham, Mirabeau, Grattan, Canning, Curran, &c., in the old 
world, Clay, Webster, Preston, Choate, Patrick Henry, in this 
the new, attained the most exalted preeminence, in the enno- 



bling functions of eloquence, we find in them evidence the 
most conclusive, that they cultivated the art of oratory with 
an unflagging assiduity — yes, and aided too by the artistical 
skill and experience of consummate artists and great masters. 

Hear the great Mr. Clay in support of this, our assertion. 
" I owe my success in life to one single fact, namely : At the 
age of twenty-seven I commenced and continued for years the 
process of daily reading and speaking, upon the contents of 
some historical or scientific book. 

" These were made, sometimes in a corn-field, at others in the 
forest, and, not unfrequently, in some distant barn, with the 
horses and oxen as my auditors. It is to this practice in the 
great art of all arts, that I am indebted for the primary and 
leading impulses that stimulated me forward, and shaped and 
"^fi^K- moulded my entire subsequent destiny. 

" Improve, then, young gentlemen, the superior advantages 
you here enjoy. Let not a day pass without exercising your 
powers of speech. There is no power like that of oratory ; 
Ceesar controlled men by exciting their fears ; Cicero, by capti- 
vating their affections, and swaying their passions. The influ- 
ence of the one, perished with its author ; that of the other, 
continues to this day." — Address of Henry Clay to the Stu 
dents of the Law School, Ballstown, Spa. 



ORATORY. 



ELOQUENCE. 



"Orator jit, poetanascitur" is the olden maxim ; but, orator 
nascitur, is just as true as poeta nascitur, while orator fit, is 
as true as ever. 

This adage forces upon us the legitimate enquiry, whether 
an orator can be made by education, habit and practice — 
whether one who has not the oratorical germ implanted in him 
by nature's God can, by the force of culture, discipline and 
training, be educated and moulded into a public speaker of the 
first order ? The answer simply is, that the orator, like the 
poet, must have the inborn genius — the faculty of eloquence, 
so to speak, structural in him — that the true orator is indeed 
a very rare being ; that when such a star comes out, he is 
clearly recognizable from among the thousands around him 
who may be classed as good speakers. Thus, the natural, the 
born orator is altogether a very different personage from the 
merely trained and cultivated speaker. The hearer feels, at 
once, and almost instinctively, that he is not in the presence, 
or under the magnetic battery of the orator's voice or action, 
in the latter case, for there is manifestly wanting, that fiery, 
that burning intensity of physiological action, through which 
nature's orator pours his ideas into the brains and hearts of 
his audience. 

While, on the other hand, it may be as truly affirmed, that 
an efficient, correct, fluent, and accomplished speaker, and one 
too, not gifted with genius, may, with due culture, training, 



and practice, be made, and that such trained, practiced, and 
polished speakers can and do play the orator, assume the 'per- 
pendicular' with confidence, and without trepidation, before 
an audience, pass current for orators, discharge with credit the 
duties and business of Church and State, the functions of the 
advocate in the forum, the legislator and statesman, in the 
Senate and deliberative assembly, and of the orator of God in 
the pulpit. 

Thus, almost all the business of the Church, the bar, and of 
legislation, so far as the functions of eloquence are called into 
requisition, is accomplished, not by orators, who have the high- 
est elements of oratory inborn in them, but by good and ready 
speakers, who cultivate and train themselves in the miscellane- 
ous practice and habit of speaking — minds, too many of which 
jank below mediocrity, and run through the various degrees 
up to the high attributes of the orator's genius. 

Then, it becomes the imperative duty of all who are des- 
tined for the professions of speaking, to seek for, and labor to 
.acquire a correct, dignified, and attractive style and manner of 
speaking. 

The High Natural Faculties of the Orator. 

The lofty and exalted natural faculties of the born orator 
must, nevertheless, be educated, developed, and cultivated 
by training, exercise, discipline, and practice, guided and 
directed by able and skillful professors of oratory, so that na- 
ture's true orator must be made, as well as born with the gift 
of genius. And, in addition to possessing the inborn idiosyn- 
cracy of eloquence, he must cultivate a voice, powerful, varied, 
and magnificent, and, with genius possess the celestial fire 
within him, and also be well favored with a splendid presence, 
a retentive and tenacious memory, a trained faculty for com- 
mon placing, and the power of combining these qualities with 
thrilling generalities, — a graceful and attractive manner of de- 
livery, a handsome body, six feet, noble features, blazing eyes, 
hair of glossy black, or venerable silver grey. And, Cicero 
adds, that " there is requisite to the orator, the acuteness of 



the logician, the subtlety of the philosopher, the skillful har- 
mony of the poet, the memory of the Jurisconsult, the trage- 
dian's voice, and the gesture of the most finished actor." 



ENUNCIATION. 



A clear, musical, sweet, sprightly, and brilliant enunciation, 
is the primary requisite of good delivery, both in speaking and 
reading. 

Nothing conduces so directly to secure this attainment, as 
the full mastery of that which we designate the sustend alto, 
with the percussive appulse, in the articulatory transit of 
words. 

This attribute can only be adequately exemplified by the 
living voice, and is eminently the method of acquiring a pow- 
erful and thoroughly sustained oratorical articulation. 



THE VOICE OF THE ORATOR. 

The voice, in eloquence, is a qualification of preeminent im- 
portance. It may be naturally good, acquired, or both. An 
indifferent, or bad voice, may, by culture, be made good. Ev- 
ery voice, therefore, is susceptible of great improvement by 
art, training, and discipline, when practised and led by a 
highly qualified professor — a process absolutely indispensable 
to the perfection of the model orator. 

The manner of generating and forming the articulate voice 
in declamation, is of incalculable and vital moment, with refer- 
ence to the preservation of the health and life of the speaker. 
There are three voices in general practice by orators, namely : 
the pectoral, or chest voice ; the mixed ; the laryngeal, or 
throat voice, and the oral, or head voice. The practice of 



8 

speaking with the chest voice is directly calculated to bring on a 
predisposition to, and a development of consumption, especially 
in persons of delicate frame and constitution. Speaking with 
the throat voice causes bronchitis ; while the purely oral voice, 
or sustend alto, is the safe, natural, and only manner of prac- 
ticing delivery and oratorical declamation, without resulting in 
fatal consequences to those who practice it as a profession. 

The following passage, appropriately pronounced, will duly 
illustrate the pure sustend alto voice. 

Past flash the lightning's gory red. 

Bolt echoed bolt of thunder, 

Cleaving the fane asunder, 
And striking all with terror dread. 

Illustration of the Percussive Apulsive transit. 

"Tis human guilt that blackens in the cloud, flashes athwart its mass in 
jagged fire, whirls in the hurricane, pollutes the air, and turns all the joyous melo- 
dies of earth into murmurings of doom." — Justice Noon Talfourd. 

Ore rotundOj or full volumed Rotundity Illustrated. 

" These massive walls, whose date o'er awes tradition, proclaim tYisXJ. belong to a 
race of kings, whose glories stream from the same cloud-girt font, whence .their own 
dawned upon the infant world." 

The most important qualities of the voice are gravity, or 
depth of tone, smoothness, volume of sound, audibility, 
strength and altitude, — illustrated in the following passage : 

"What! to strike, to slay? No; unless the audible voice of Heaven call thee 
to that dire office, but to shed, on ears abused by falsehood, power of truth in words 
immortal; not such words as flash from the fierce demagogue's unthinking rage, to 
madden for a moment and expire, but words which bear the spirit of great deeds, 
winged for the future, 'neath the eagle's home, or the sea-cave, where the tempest 
roars till some heroic leader bid them wake, to thrill the world with echoes." — 

Justice Noon Talfourd. 



PHILOSOPHY OF THE VOICE. 

There is a profound philosophy in the adequate practical 
knowledge of the elocutionary voice. 

The positive excellencies of eloquence, viz : the elements in 
which are developed power, force, strength, dignity, and effec- 
tiveness in the delivery, can never be possessed in their highest 
excellence by speakers, except great attention is given to the dis- 
cipline of the voice, in its versatile general qualities. Thus ex- 
pression may be unfolded upon a basis the most natural and 
effective, combining the philosophy and generic qualities of the 
oratorical voice, with the most graceful, dignified and com- 
manding action. 

In this manner the voice for delivery should be acquired, in all 
its varied qualities, and specific shades and in precise harmony, 
with the unimpeded inhalation and exhalation of air, so vitally 
necessary to the health, and ease and power of the speaker. Thus 
the student should learn to send forth, and husband the breath 
in speaking, so as to spend lengthened sounds, and to deliver a 
period without gasping, or being blown by a rush of declama- 
tion. This, which in itself is a feature of vital and paramount 
utility, will be found to prove, under God, preeminently suc- 
cessful in implanting in the habits of the speaker that physical 
facility of expression, which will secure the healthful exercise 
of the lungs and organs of the voice, and without which public 
speaking is a health destroying and fatal avocation. 

In evolving the inherent timbre and generic qualities of the 
elocutionary voice, regard should always be had, — in developing 
in it a fullness of volume, strength, and compass, which will 
secure at once, in an extraordinary degree, a style and manner 
of expression, adapted directly to the orator's ease and com- 
fort while speaking and declaiming, and the consequent pres- 
ervation of his health and life, — to its culture on the basis of 
the sustend alto. 



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APPKECIATION BY THE KOMAN OKATOKS OF THE 
OS KOTTTODUM. 

The Koman rhetoricians and great orators, in describing 
and classifying the preeminent excellencies of the foremost of 
Grecian orators, Demosthenes and others, designated the voice 
acquired by this prince of the 'art of arts/ after long and la- 
borious efforts in his grotto, or cave near the sea-shore, the ore 
rotundo, or the os rotundum. This attribute they esteemed 
the sine qua non of the speaking voice, the master attainment 
of oratorical delivery ; the foundation upon which every qual- 
ity should be educed, radiating from, and converging to and 
around it. 



THE OKATOKICAL VOICE. 

The voice is the medium through which ideas are trans- 
fused, or communicated to the minds of others. And lofty, 
massive, and sublime trains of thought cannot be spoken elo- 
quently, through a feeble, harsh, thin, and squeaking voice ; 
no less than cannon balls, of the heaviest calibre, could be fired 
through the barrel of a rifle. So, great and eloquent ideas 
must, to constitute true eloquence, have, as their medium of 
transit, a voice of adequate rotundity, compass, and power. 

The differerent qualities of the Voice in a Model Oration. 

First. — The English, or placid and tranquil drift — for the 
elocution, or delivery of the exordium, or opening — of those 
passages of repose, when the speaker and auditors want relief 
and repose, and breathing time, after what are called bursts, 
flights, and corruscations of impassioned eloquence. 

Second. — The clarion, or bell-toned, and magnificent Koman 
voice, for the utterance of majestic, stately, and sublime illus- 
tration, and description, and awful warning. 



11 

Thirdly. — The noble, fiery, impassioned Grecian, or Demos- 
thenean style, embodying the vehement play of the most ener- 
getic and burning passions, — every intonation of command, 
concentrated power, and terrific denunciation. 

Fourthly. — The sympathetic chromatic style, for the touch- 
ing expression of pathos, described in another place. 

Fifthly. — The aspirate ore rotundo, for the utterance of de- 
nunciation, scorn, hatred, execration, &c., and 

Sixthly. — The voice of irony, for the trenchant expression of 
scathing and polished sarcasm. 

The Percussive Appulse in Practical Eloquence. 

" The fidelity, prowess and gallantry of Ireland, have ever been found to be the 
leverage which moves the power of England, in implanting and spreading her 
Institutions, her laws, and her commerce in every region of the world. Old Albion 
is the fulcrum on which that lever moves. Her money, her treasure, and inex- 
haustible resources, are the stock and capital in her gigantic enterprizes. The in- 
tellect and arm of Ireland in Britain's army, her navy, her councils, and diplomacy, 
are the mighty instrumentalities which sustain her imperial sway and sovereignty 
in every quarter of the globe." — Prcelector Cronin. 

Every quality and modification of the oratorical voice should 
be founded on the sustend alto principle or attribute, as its 



The speaker, trained on this principle, will be enabled to 
practice oratorical declamation, and long continued vocal- 
ization, so as to invigorate by the exercise his health and 
strength. 



THE EXOKDIUM. 



The subject of practical, oratorical expression, or delivery, 
is here presented, in the precise order of a model oration. Be- 
ginning with the 'exordium, which ought to be the simplest 
thing in the world ; — its principle use being to lay the subject 
well down, and give a glimpse of the idea which has to be de- 
veloped. In this may be introduced certain oratorical precau- 



12 

tions, insinuations, and commendations. The voice, in the de- 
livery of the exordium, ought to be soft, modest, and without 
any pompous flourishes. Toward its close, it should be clear, 
strong, and pleasing, and, when face to face at the grappling 
point of the subject, the manner should acquire assurance, 
authority, and even brilliancy. Then the eyes will begin to 
shoot lightning, from the inspiration of eloquence/ 

The passage annexed is a fine example of the exordium, 
whose delivery should be in the smooth, fervid, and tranquil 
English style of elocution. 

" When we view retrospectively the history of the British Empire, as well as 
the history of the world — when we see what the Heaven-given faculty of elo- 
quence has done in promoting, spreading, and advancing Christianity, civilization, 
and the happiness of the human race — when we see, emblazoned on every page of 
universal history, the triumphs, the trophies of the Divine art of oratory, when we 
see, especially in modern times, in our own day, the chiefs in the eloquent war, Cur- 
ran, G-rattan, Sheridan, Burke, Chatham, thundering through the English and Irish 
nations, making despotism, tyranny, corruption, recoil and shrink, scorched at the 
glance of their minds, while battling in the cause, and supporting the rights, the 
liberties, the freedom of America, Hindostan, and Ireland, — when we see the light 
that gleams from the sword and scimetar eclipsed by the blaze of eloquence, it be- 
comes indeed almost paradoxical, how inadequate the appreciation of this Heavenly 
gift of G-od to man, for the good of His creatures." 

"No matter what the object, the cause, or the interest in which its functions are 
called into requisition, — no matter whether in the temple of justice, to balance 
the equilibrium or poise the scales of disputed rights, — no matter whether in 
deliberative assembly, or the halls of legislation, or the Senatorial tribunal, or 
to disseminate, in every region, from pole to pole, till the world becomes illu- 
mined with its blaze, the Divine light of Christianity, — eloquence is the potent, 
the irresistible instrumentality in spreading, throughout the world, the justice 
and equity of Heaven, of unfurling the standard of the Cross, floating the banner 
of Calvary triumphant over the crest of every billow, wafting it through every 
breeze, and in every land under the sun." — Prcelector Cronin. 

In this our plan, or frame of a model oration, the student of 
eloquence is directed, with eminent practicability, through all 
the various divisions and collocations of a masterly speech. The 
exordium, embracing the premises, the position, and the elocu- 
tion peculiarly adapted and appropriate to their delivery ; the 
manner and voice of pronouncing the opening, we designate 
the English Senatorial style. It is a smooth, even, tranquil 
style, and is characterized by a fervid, glowing, and animated 
quality of expression. 






13 

In its highest perfection it is most dignified and signally im- 
pressive, and is peculiarly appropriate to the expression of 
statement, as in the matter of terse and racy description, nar- 
rative, and graphic passages, and in trenchant and masterly 
argumentation, which should invariably he pronounced in this 
style of delivery. 

The premises and position stated, the speaker proceeds to 
the development and exposition of his theme, which is also to 
be spoken in a spirited and more enlivened drift of this Eng- 
lish style. He thus continues, rising and warming with the 
unfolding of his subject, till he comes to the conclusion of his 
argument, whose style of expression is termed the sublimed 
English manner. 

Thus, in all the vicissitudes of nationalities, in the transitions, mutations, and 
progress of civil and religious liberty, since the early dawn of civilization, to the 
present time, Eloquence, the handmaid of justice and truth, the direct emanation 
from Divinity, is the effective, the potential agency, and the means of establishing, 
through every interest of society, morality, religion, law, order, and equity. 'In 
G-reece and Rome, the faculty of Eloquence was an indispensable qualification to 
perfect citizenship.' In this imperial Republic, the ability to write and speak well 
is in the highest requisition for exalted citizenship, and opens the way to position, 
fame, social and political distinction. ' In this representative system of popular 
government, it was well remarked by an acute observer (De Tocqueville) of Amer- 
ican Institutions, that in no country whatever is the genius for writing and speaking 
a more necessary and commanding endowment, than in this.' 

And now, when this great, glorious, and free fabric of marvelous and comprehen- 
sive Republican government is menaced with the dire calamity of dismemberment 
and dissolution, oratory, eloquence Divine, will, as ever, become the faithful and irre- 
sistible auxiliary of patriotism, in upholding and perpetuating this, the noblest 
frame of polity — the boon of Providence to the human race. 

May it ever stand, and continue the refuge, the asylum of the oppressed and af- 
flicted of all nations, the sanctuary for the perpetual residence of an enlightened 
freedom and justice ; may it ever stand, and stand forever, as the beacon light for 
the bleeding and down-trodden nationalities of the world. 



AFTEK THE EXOKDIUM. 



(WtfVK 



' After the exordium, the speaker must confront the main 
idea in his speech, with ability, good sense and intelligence, 
and explore it with an unwarped, piercing mind, as well as 

2 



14 

with boldness, and a masterly argumentation and analysis. He 
ought to have the plan of his discourse well embedded in his 
mind, keeping present before it the chain of his thoughts. 

It is, moreover, essential to guard against any digressions, 
which may abruptly break the chain of the exposition and 
send the mind into a different channel. On this account, the 
orator before speaking should be collected and wholly absorbed 
in his ideas, and proof against the interruptions and impres- 
sions which surround him. The slightest distraction to which 
he yields may break the chain of his thoughts, mar his plan, 
.and even sponge out of his mind the very remembrance of his 
.subject itself/ 

He thus continues rising and warming with the progress 
and development of his subject, till he comes to the conclusion 
of his argument. 

'Here then, is the line of demarcation at which he may 
irest, if the whole world were composed of learned doctors and 
philosophers, who would be convinced and persuaded by argu- 
ment alone, by the force of mere demonstration or a process 
of ratiocination. 

But the great masses of mankind are, so to speak, compound 
.beings, swayed and carried by their impulses, passions and 
emotions, rather than by their intellects or understanding. 
Hence, it is the multitude that will be ever influenced and 
moved by the spell of the orator's voice ; and hence, the power 
^.which eloquence will always wield in impelling and moving 
the majority of the human race, to resolution, decision and 
j action. 

When the minds of the hearers are instructed, convinced, 
^nd filled with the necessary information on the subject upon 
wl*c* iWy a * e addressed, it is then that the duty of touching, 
swaying and persuading them, devolves on the speaker. It is 
now he musli press into his service every subject, every illus- 
tration, every information of the day, and carry the minds of 
his audience through nature up to nature's God. 

1 At this point commences the crisis of the oration — that 
moment when the speech produces its highest effect, by pierc- 
ing and mastering the hearer's soul, with the light which it 



15 

imparts, or the feelings which it arouses. The listener is, at 
that solemn instant, won, and remains passive under the influ- 
ence which touches and vivifies him/ 

'At this supreme effort of eloquence, when the orator pene- 
trates into the hearer's soul by the radiation of his speech, 
animating that soul with its life, he becomes master of it, — 
impresses, moves and turns it, at will, — by a word, a gesture, 
or an exclamation, nay, even by silence itself/ 

The quality of the oratorical voice, in which this part or 
division of the speech, i. e. these sublime illustrations, should 
be spoken, is styled the clarion and hell-toned Roman voice — 
so called from its analogy to the full, flowing, majestic, yet 
tranquil and stately manner of Cicero and other Eoman ora- 
tors, and founded on the os rotundum or the ore rotundo. 

The extract subjoined, is an illustration of this bugle-toned 
Eoman style : — 

f At this solemn and eventful crisis of our national existence, when the success 
or failure of the greatest experiment of self-government that was ever devised, or 
undertaken by man, is at its culminating, testing point, — when the demon of dis- 
cord seems to exult in the prospect of its destruction, and the imperial tyrants, 
the oligarchies and despotisms of Europe, are looking with anxious eyes for the 
downfall of this, our cherished confederation, responsible and momentous, indeed, 
without exaggeration, is the duty of every true and loyal American patriot. The most 
sacred deposit in this sublunary world, next to religion itself — Liberty, even the 
Liberty of millions yet to be, is committed, as a most sacred trust, to his custody." 

Cronin. 

Sublimed August Roman Drift. 

"Oh! noble duty; high and sublime office, — the defenders of free and popular 
institutions, the envy and terror of tyrants, rights which our fathers fought for 
and bequeathed — rights cheaply earned with blood. Then let us swear by those 
rights which cost our sires their blood, that we shall, like heroes descended from 
heroes, maintain inviolate — and if need be with our blood — the integrity of our re- 
publican Constitution, against foes and traitors, be they foreign or be they do- 
mestic; that we shall rally round the star-spangled flag of our great, glorious, 
democratic Republic, at all and every hazard, and that we shall, by the blessing of 
Almighty God, solve the greatest of problems in the noblest of social sciences — 
that of self-government, founded on freedom, moderation, liberality, and an in- 
violable justice." — Prcdector Cronin, 

This clarion-toned Koman voice is the appropriate medium 
through which the solemn supplications of devotional worship 
should be uttered. Awful warning, reverential awe, grand and 



16 

sublime description and devotion, should be spoken through 
this quality of vocal expression. 

It is emphatically the voice appropriate to the clerical 
functions, the voice of the orator of God in the Christian 
sanctuary and pulpit, and should therefore be sought after 
and cultivated by every pulpit speaker. 

The Senatorial, or Parliamentary, clarion-toned, Roman style. 

u Hereditary judges of the first tribunal in the world, to you I appeal for justice 
to millions of our fellow beings, now groaning in the oppression of bondage. 
Patrons of all the arts that humanize mankind, under your protection I place 
humanity herself. To the merciful sovereign of the free people of England, I 
dutifully present my petition in behalf of myriads of her African sisters, now 
galled by the manacles of slavery. And to Him who is of purer eyes than to be- 
hold such vast iniquities, I turn, and humbly supplicate at the throne of His 
mercy, that He may avert the calamities which now impend over us ; that He may 
turn your hearts to justice, and that throughout the world His will be done." 

Brougham. 

At this pass in the oration, a drift of Involution may be in- 
troduced with fine effect. 



ORATORICAL INVOLUTION, OR LIGHT AND SHADE. 

Oratorical Involution, grouping, or Light and Shade, em- 
braces a principle, substantially of rhetoric and elocution. Of 
rhetoric, as regards the structure of the composition ; of elocu- 
tion, as respects the delivery or expression. 

In the highest order of composition, there is great Involu- 
tion of style. In the speeches of Cicero, Burke, Brougham, 
as in the speeches and writings of Macauley, Lamartine, the 
writings of Milton and Shakespeare, &c, the subject in the 
periods is so separated and detached by the intervention of 
phrases or cross currents of thought, from the affirmative ex- 
pression, that it becomes extremely difficult, in the heat and 
current of expression, to connect and span the special relations 
of thought through their rhetorical syntactic and logical ties. 

This, with the inverted order of language, is characteristic 
of the productions of great minds, men of the broadest calibre 
of understanding and amplitude of intellect — luxuriating in the 



17 

affluence of ideas ; rich in universal, in unbounded information 
on every subject ; consummate masters of speech, expert artists, 
adepts in rhetoric ; they avail themselves, when thinking aloud 
in the process of instantaneous composition, of every order of 
structure — the inverted, the direct and mixed. 

In such conxposition, the subject, or nominative, is, by these 
parenthetic cross currents, separated from the verb, or affirma- 
tive, the adjective from the noun, the adverb from its adjective, 
the auxiliary from the principal verb, that it becomes almost 
impracticable for ordinary speakers to render the sense of passa- 
ges thus involved, and, so to speak, dove-tailed into periods 
analogous, or approximating to the parenthetic form. 

This style of oratorical composition, now so prevalent from 
its great convenience in facilitating extemporaneous compo- 
sition, writing and speaking, is coming into vogue amongst the 
finest orators and writers of the day. It is an attribute of 
the highest order in oratory, when mastered in its full per- 
fection, in all its varied qualities and inflections. This is an 

Illustration of Involution. 

" If there is a Power above us, (and that there is, all nature cries aloud through all 
her works,) He must delight in virtue." — Addison. 

" Others — without regard to sex, respect for rank, age, or sacredness of func- 
tion, — fathers torn from their children — husbands from their wives, — enveloped in a 
whirlwind of cavalry — amid the goading spears of drivers, and the trampling of 
pursuing horses, — were swept into captivity in an unknown and hostile land." — 

Burke. 



THE PERORATION. 



f It is in the peroration that the seal must be set to the 
speech, or oration, and receive its plenary completeness. The 
best way of winding up a peroration, is by a rapid recapitula- 
tion of the whole discourse, presenting in sum what has been 
developed in the various parts, so as to enunciate only the 
leading ideas with their connection — a process which gives the 
opportunity of a lively summary, and making the remem- 
brance and application of it easy ; and, since the orator has 

2* 



18 

spoken to influence the hearer by some permanent feeling, 
which must give the finishing stroke and determine him to 
action, — the epitome of ideas must be itself strengthened, 
and rendered living, by a few touching words to inspirit the 
feeling at the last moment, so that the convinced auditor shall 
be ready to do what is required/ 

The Elocution of the Peroration. 

The style of elocution in which perorations are to be spoken, 
is that which is termed the Demosthenic, or Grecian, and in 
which the passions are evoked from their inmost recesses, and 
the most impassioned vehemence in the declamation, begets in 
the voice a massive rotundity, fullness of volume, and sustained 
elevation; the obvious manifestation of the most brilliant 
sublimity, lofty and commanding emotions in the speaker. 

The undoubted identity of this style of expression with the 
manner of Demosthenes, Pericles, and other Grecian orators, 
warrants its nomenclature as the Grecian style or manner of 
elocution. 

Its characteristic consists in a noble elevation, smoothness 
and musical clearness of tone, with a metalic or brazen reso- 
nance, in the syllabic vocalities designated the Grecian, or 
trumpet-ring. 

This quality was developed by the aid of brazen vases, de- 
signed for the improvement of the voice, in the Athenian 
: building for public speaking. Great artistical skill and dex- 
terity are absolutely indispensable to its proper attainment and 
practice. 

In one of the orations of the great Irish orator Shiel, occurs 
the following splendid peroration, which will serve as an illus- 
tration of this attribute : — 

" Whose were the athletic arms that drove your bayonets at Vimiera, through 
those phalanxes that never before reeled in the shock of war ? What desperate 
valor climbed the steeps and filled the moats of Badajos? All, all his victories 
should have rushed upon Ins memory — Vimiera, Badajos, Albeura, Toulouse, 
Salamanca, Tele vera, and last of all, the greatest. Tell me, sir, for you were — I 
appeal to the gallant soldier before me, from whose opinions T differ, but who bears, 
I know, a generous heart in an intrepid breast, — you must needs remember that 
day, when the destinies of mankind were trembling in the balance, — while death 
fell in showers upon them, — when the artillery of France, levelled with the pre- 



19 

cision of the most deadly science, played upon them, — when, incited by the voice, 
inspired by the example of their mighty leader, her legions rushed again and again 
to the onset, — tell me, sir, if for a moment — when, to hesitate for a moment, would 
have lost all, did the aliens blench ? And when at length the moment had arrived 
for the last decisive rally, — and the valor so long wisely kept in check, was at 
length let loose, — and the great Captain, commanding the final assault, exclaimed, 
in words familiar, but immortal, "Up braves, and at 'em!" — did the natives of my 
devoted country, with less heroic valor than those of your own glorious isle, pre- 
cipitate themselves upon the foe." — Shiel. 

This thrilling peroration, the finest ever uttered within the 
walls of the British Parliament, was spoken with such quiver- 
ing action and heated eloquence by this etherial genius, that it 
electrified to the highest pitch of enthusiasm the imperial 
law-givers of proud Albion. 

Metaphorical Grecian Drift. 

" The fire in St. Domingo is raging to windward — its sparks are borne on the 
breeze, and all the Carribean Sea is studded with the elements of explosion; 
every tribe, of every shade and race, from the fiery Koromantin to the peaceful 
Ebo, will combine, and the ghastly glare of Colonial devastation flashes from every 
quarter on the astonished eye." — Brougham. 

The Arch of Oratorical Inflections. 

u Who is it that causes this river to rise in the high mountains, and empty itself 
again into the great ocean? Who is it that causes to blow the loud winds of 
winter, and calms them again at His will in the summer? Who is it that rears 
the shades of those lofty forests in summer, and blasts them again at His will in 
the winter ? The same Being who gave to you a country on the other side of the 
water, and gave ours to us ; and by this title we shall defend it, said the warrior, 
throwing down his tomahawk and raising the war-whoop of his nation." — Erskine. 

Another Exemplification. 

"When the loud cry of trampled Hindostan, arose to Heaven in her appeal from 
man, his was the thunder — his the avenging rod, the wrath — the delegated voice 
of God, which shook the nations through his lips, and blazed, till vanquished 
Senates trembled as they praised." — Byron. 

Another. 

"Breasts to whom all the strength of feeling given, bear hearts electric charged 
with fire from Heaven; black with rude collision, inly torn; by clouds surrounded, 
and on whirlwinds borne ; driven o'er the louring atmosphere that nurst thoughts 
which have turned to thunder, scorch and burst." — lb. 

The deep, intensive, downward movements, or descending 
progressions of the oratorical voice, alternating with the slides 



20 

of rising inflections in the Oratorial Arch of Inflection, with 
grouping, or light and shade : — 

"I tremble with indignation, to be driven to put such a question in England. 
Shall it be endured, that a citizen of this free country, — instead of being tried in 
any of the ordinary tribunals of justice, where the accusation, as soon at least as 
it is made known, is followed in a few hours by the trial, — that the accusation 
shall spread wide as the region of letters — that the accused shall stand day after 
day, and year after year, a spectacle before the public, who are kept in perpetual 
commotion against him — that he shall not be suffered, without the severest 
penalties, to offer anything in his defense to the judgment of mankind ? If this 
be law, — which it is for you this day to decide, — such a man has no trial, and that 
great Hall built by our fathers for the administration of English justice, is no 
longer a Court, but an altar, and an Englishman, instead of being tried by God 
and his country, is a victim and a sacrifice." — Erskine. 



SYMPATHETIC MELODIAL, CHROMATIC, PATHOS. 

As the functions of the orator, and especially of the Sacred 
orator, should be directed to sway the feelings of the auditors, 
and as true eloquence springs from the heart, no less than from 
the head, it becomes of paramount importance to understand 
and cultivate the style and manner of elocution, which touches, 
moves, controls, sways, and governs the emotions, impulses, 
and passions of men. 

This elocution peculiarly appropriate to the impressive ex- 
pression of pathos, is designated the sympathetic, or chromatic 
melody of Pathos. 

The finer feelings, sympathies, and plaintive emotions, such 
as love, joy, exultation, sorrow, mortification, chagrin, pene- 
tential emotion, should be uttered through the various phases 
of this quality of the oratorial voice. It is a gentle, sweet, sub- 
dued and touching manner of utterance, with a fine semitonic, 
and tremulous timbre in its tones, analogous to the notes of 
lute. Here is an illustration of it. 

" Ah! who can tell how hard it is to climb the steep where fame's proud temple 
shines afar ; ah ! who can tell how many a soul sublime hath felt the influence of 
malignant stars and waged with fortune an eternal war. 

The blood of England, Ireland, and Scotland, flowed in the same stream, drench- 
ed the same field ; when the chill morning dawned, their dead lay cold and stark 
together. In the same deep pit their bodies were deposited. The dew falls from 
heaven on their commingled dust in the grave. The green sward of spring now 



21 

covers their consecrated union in the grave. Partakers in every peril in the glory, 
shall we not participate, and are we told, as the requital for all this, that we are to 
be estranged from that noble country for whose salvation our life blood has been 
poured out." — Shiel. 

Ironical subdued Exultation commingled with Sorrow. 

NATURE'S GENTLEMAN. 
M Whom do you dub as gentleman ? the knave, the fool, the brute, if he but own 
full tide of gold and wear a courtly suit. The parchment scroll of titled line, the 
ribbon at the knee, can still suffice to ratify and grant such high degree. But, na- 
ture, with her matchless hand, sends forth her nobly born, and laughs the paltry 
attributes of rank and wealth to scorn. She moulds with care, a spirit rare, half 
human, half Divine, and laughs, exulting, who can make a gentleman like mine ? 
She may not spend her common skill upon the outward part, but sheds her beauty, 
grace, and light, upon the brain and heart. She may not choose ancestral fame, 
his pathway to illume ; the sun that sheds the brightest light may rise from mist 
and gloom." 

Exultation. 

" There is a joy in worth, a high, abiding, soul-pervading charm, which, never 
daunted, ever bright and warm, mocks at the idle, shadowy ills of earth ; amid the 
gloom, is bright and tranquil in the storm. The stoic was not wrong. There is no 
evil to virtuous brave in the battle's rift, or on the wave ; worshiped or scorned, 
alone, or in the throng, he is himself a man : not life's nor fortune's slave." 



OKATORICAL ACTION, 



THE LIFE, THE VERY VITALITY OF ELOQUENCE. 

All the learning and knowledge, all the laws and principles, 
rules and systems of Khetoric and Elocution, all the teachings 
of learned professors in voice, manner, and delivery, will not, 
cannot (absolutely indispensable and necessary as unbounded, 
universal, illimitable information is to qualify the true orator) 
form the speaker, or make him truly eloquent. 

And here we must repeat the well known doctrine of the first 
and last, the prince of orators, Demosthenes himself, and impress 
upon the student's mind, that Action, earnest, impassioned, 
and energetic, the Action of a noble heart, and great soul, is 
the very life, the vitality of Eloquence. One blast of fiery 
passion, bursting from the speaker, flashing from his eyes, 
swelling and distending arteries, vein and muscle, firing and 
lighting up the whole countenance, and expanding and mag- 
nifying the whole man, is greater and better, and worth all the 
other attainments put together. 



22 

e This oratorical action augments, in an extraordinary degree, 
the expressiveness of Eloquence. Amplitude of soul, large- 
ness and goodness of heart, a genial intrepidity, a bold and 
generous nature, are the qualities most essential to the orator. 
He must also have the celestial fire within him, and when, in 
the highest throes of passion and emotion, he is a mass of in- 
tensely excited nerve, acting like a charged battery on the ag- 
gregate vitality of his audience, while individually receiving 
his ideas and words. Thus, every current of vitality within 
him, courses and darts, like electricity, through every fibre in his 
frame. Every function in his body, from head to foot, dilates 
and expands. The fire of inspiration shoots and blazes from 
his eyes, thrills on hs tongue, quivers on his lips, swelling, di- 
lating and elevating the whole man, to dimensions far beyond and 
above his normal, or ordinary condition. He thus takes his 
lofty flight, and is wafted on high, as it were, on the fiery pin- 
ions of inspiration, soaring majestically, imperially, as the true 
and recognized sovereign of humanity. 

This condition is the soul of the external action, the inter- 
nal spring, which prompts the movement of the hands, the 
head, the throbbing and heaving of the chest, and the action 
of the whole body, from the toe to the crown of the head. In 
this state, the electric currents are such as to course through 
the frame, so as to produce the oratorical thrill. This mag- 
netic battery of the orator's voice is manifestly caused by that 
unparalleled intensity of physiological action, with which he 
delivers his fiery and noble thoughts into the hearts and brains 
of his audience. Thus, fired with earnestness, his eye becomes 
the mirror of his soul. In the lightning of his glance, there 
is a flash which illumines what is said, and the want of which, 
dims the brilliancy of the speech. 

The rapid contraction and dilation of the facial muscles, 
each moment changing and renewing the physiognomy, forming 
on the visage a picture analogous to the speaker's feelings, or 
to his thoughts — these signs of dismay, of joy or fear, of hope, 
of affliction, of calmness, of storm or serenity, plough and 
agitate the countenance, as a sea shaken by the winds — im- 
parting movement and life to the physiognomy, and becoming 
like a second discourse, which doubles the force of the first.' 



23 

In this condition of impassioned oratorical action, the orator 
grows clearer by burning, is clearer when most fervid, shrewd 
when most excited, most capable when in the highest state of 
oratorical paroxysm, and thus clarifying at every pass, — while, 
if interrupted, he recoils, but instantly swoops forward, to pin, 
to transfix his victim. 



BODILY PREPARATION OF THE SPEAKER. 

' The body should be healthy, that the intellectual functions 
may be properly performed. Thus the general state of the 
health ought to be good, that the thinking power may have a 
proper instrument in the operation of its functions. 

True, one may by efforts hurl the body into action, yet, not 
without fatigue and exhaustion of the strength, and later 
indisposition and decay, entailing on the whole vital economy 
a painful reaction and general prostration. 

The model orator should, therefore, have a strong constitu- 
tion, a sound head, a good digestion, a full and robust chest, 
and be healthy in lung and liver/ 



THE PHYSIOLOGY OF SPEAKING. 

Having, in our preceding views, given an outline of the 
qualifications necessary for the orator, it is proper here to en- 
lighten him on a point which may involve his life or death. 
And this question, which each aspirant, entering upon the 
oratorical career, should in all seriousness put to himself is, 
whether public speaking and vocalization can be practiced and 
pursued safely, without detriment to the health, and, conse- 
quent danger to the life, especially of persons whose frame and 
constitution may be of a delicate nature, or texture. This 
question, of so vital moment, I answer by saying, that public 
speaking and vocalization is a healthful and invigorating exer- 
cise, if properly conducted, but of fatal and health-destroying 
tendency, if practiced without due and adequate regard to the 



24 

principles of Physiology ; in other words, to the laws of health 
and life, as harmonizing with declamatory expression, or de- 
livery. 

By the action of the heart, the blood surges at each pulsa- 
tion to the lungs, the brain, and the extremities. Any action, 
or condition of existence, which causes this, the vital fluid, to 
flow violently to the brain and lungs, is not only simply dan- 
gerous, but, in the majority of cases, deleterious, fatal, and 
disastrous to the health and life of the speaker. Does long- 
continued and impassioned speaking tend directly to produce 
this result? Most undoubtedly, and nothing more so, for, fre- 
quently, local congestions of the lungs and brain follow or su- 
pervene, resulting in hemoptysis, hemorrhages of the lungs, and 
apoplexy. 

Whole periods, nay, paragraphs, are uttered without a pause, 
a breath ; but with a gasp. In this manner the air, contain- 
ing oxygen, the element of life, is barred out by the momentary 
suspension of the inhalation and exhalation, while the carbonic 
acid gas is kept in the lungs, and the speaker is puffing, gulp- 
ing, usually ending with prostration and general exhaustion, 
and thus the foundation of disease and ill health is laid, and, 
ultimately, death itself is the fatal consequence. ' For nothing 
is so fatiguing, or so exhausting, as declamation, long contin- 
ued, i. e., oratorical declamation, which brings simultaneously 
into action the whole person, moral and physical. The head, 
all the economy of which is strained to the uttermost by ex- 
temporization ; the lungs, which inhale and respire with vio- 
lence, frequently with a shock and a gulp ; the larynx, which 
is expanded and contracted precipitately ; the nervous system, 
which is wound up to the highest degree of sensibility ; the 
muscular system, which is keenly agitated by the oratorical 
stage play, — -from the sole of the foot to the tip of the fingers ; 
the blood, which warms, boils, surges, and makes heart and 
arteries beat with quick strokes, shooting fire through the 
whole organization, till the humors of the body evaporate and 
stream in drops of perspiration along the surface of the skin/ 

The student or speaker may judge, then, how hazardous it 
is to enter on a profession so arduous and dangerous, without 
being duly trained by a professor of Physiological Elocution. 




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